The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Reader Elmer sends Eric Massa's op-ed [pdf] defending his vote against the supplemental war funding bill. Syracuse News 10 has Massa on the phone defending the vote.

RNews reports on Massa's award of Congressional Awards to to Rochester-area young people.

Finally, here's one man's view on the Route 219 construction delay. Apparently, it was know long ago that building a road through "the middle of a landslide" would be fraught with environmental issues.

Eric Massa appeared on the Rachel Maddow show last night to discuss the firing of General McKiernan. Video after the break:

Reader Vincent sends this Kansas City Star puff piece explaining why Internet rationing is a good thing. The story is chock-full of one-sided analysis, like this choice sentence:

Experts say that changes in the way people use the Internet - and the way some gorge on its endless cache of data - mean current pricing systems could go the way of your dial-up modem.

Characterizing heavy Internet users as pigs ("gorging") and treating price increases as an inevitable side-effect of new technology are two of the techniques used by Internet providers that want to justify higher prices for the same or more limited service. The Star writer never stops to point out that new technology generally leads to higher usage coupled with lower pricing, not the opposite.

Here's another bad analogy in the piece:

"It's sort of like the neighbor was watering his lawn and running his fountain using your connection," Knorr said. "Your water pressure drops, and you're paying his bill."

The difference between a water pipe and an Internet connection is technology: for less than $100 per user, a cable Internet provider can make the pipe 10 times bigger.

The prime example used by the Star is an Internet provider in Lawrence, Kansas, which recently began tiered pricing. The Star piece never deals with the elephant in the room, namely, the consequences of having a monopoly providing a valuable public service. Instead, the Star is happy to give that Internet provider a platform to justify its pricing and practices.

The Star is a McClatchy newspaper. The McClatchy motto is "Truth to Power", but, in this case, power got a puff piece.

Eric Massa's appearances at local high schools is getting some press. WENY also has video of his lightly attended town hall meeting in Chemung.

The Ithaca Journal reports that the $500K cap on gross income is back in the 2010 Obama budget. This cap had been changed to adjusted gross income in the Congressional version of the budget, but it's back in as a "bargaining chip".

The Star-Gazette has news of the helicopter budget cuts, which include both Marine One and a search-and-rescue helicopter called CSAR-X.

WENY reports that Eric Massa is among the members of the New York delegation who's optimistic that some scaled-down version of a new Presidential helicopter will be built. The proposed replacement for the aging fleet has turned into a huge boondoggle, with the estimated cost topping out at $400 million per helicopter.

To get an idea of how crazy that price is, the helicopter on which Marine One is based cost $27 million each when first introduced in 2000.

Update: The D&C pegs the number of jobs riding on this program as 800, centered in the town of Owego, which is roughly halfway between Elmira and Binghamton.

Eric Massa says he probably won't support the Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental, because of a campaign promise not to vote for more Iraq funding until there was a concrete troop withdrawal plan.

The D&C's story on road funding quotes Massa. All totaled, the area will have $73 million of road building financed with stimulus funds.

The Messenger-Post's Monday editorial cautions Eric Massa to keep the swine flu hype in check.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader front page [pdf] and (jump [pdf]) with coverage of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans' Museum in Elmira. Eric Massa spoke at the dedication. The Star-Gazette also has coverage of the event.

The Leader also front-pages the passing of Jack Kemp. Here's a great example of the kind of class act Kemp was. (via Balloon Juice).

WETM lists the money coming to the district from the just-passed budget.

Rob Price at the Steuben Courier has a column where he interviews his mother-in-law about border closings.